Written by Nimai
From Czech, Maharaj flew to Amsterdam (18 January) to get a new passport. Upon arrival, we went straight to apply for it. Fortunately there were no complications and we just had to wait for two days before we could collect it. During the two days of waiting, Maharaj decided to take some quiet time. The previous weeks of travelling had been very exhausting. On the second day however, we felt like going to the beach, so we rented a car and drove there. It was exciting to see Maharaj behind the wheel for the first time. It was a windy day at -10 degrees Celcius, so we dressed up as warm as possible. After walking on Zandvoort beach for about 45 minutes, we realized that we had gone a bit too far so we started going back through the dunes. It turned out that we had walked 10 km so when we finally reached the car, we both were finished. On the way back, Maharaj drove some extra distance to show me a few different areas of Amsterdam.
After collecting the double-pages sized passport, we took a train to Leipzig (Germany) where we stayed for the weekend. We lived close to the temple and there was a park nearby where we could perform our daily walk. Maharaj gave classes in German, speaking amongst many other things about the need to add Krsna to our life as much as we can. On Saturday, Maharaj did a program at Pradyumna’s flat. When we arrived there, the neighbours had already set up a puppet theatre where they later narrated the story of Putana coming to Vrindavan. They used special sound effects to make the performance more dramatic and everyone really enjoyed it. The next day, lots of devotees from all over Germany came to see Maharaj in Leipzig, so the Sunday program was a great success.
On Monday, (25 January), we left for Sweden where we stayed for another three days. Maharaj gave daily morning classes at the BBT house and evening programs in the Stockholm temple. He spoke about the importance of having strong faith in Krsna, giving the example of Prahlad Maharaj who was thrown into a pit of snakes by his own father and did not feel disturbed by it. In another lecture, Maharaj argued that since there is personality in us therefore if there is a creator, wouldn’t he have personality as well!? Maharaj further explained that if Krsna is a person it is logical that he would possess the most wonderful features. Like this, he established from a logical approach, why Krsna consciousness makes a lot of sense. From Sweden, we then flew to Brussels to attend the Radhadesh Mellows Kirtan Festival.
